Chapter 1204 — The Divine Physician and the Heavenly Gate

Shujun was likewise dumbstruck, frozen like a wooden chicken.

Throughout the history of the Creators, void beasts had always been the mount that every warrior among the Creators dreamed of possessing. To own a void beast was to see one's status within the tribe rise in a straight line.

Of course, Shujun had no void beast—not because his strength was insufficient. On the contrary, in his past life he had been the mightiest Creator of that era, revered as a Divine King!

Though void beasts were formidable, the Mother of Void Beasts was held in the hands of the Great Emperor. Thus Shujun had not subdued a void beast, but rather another exceedingly powerful colossal beast called the Taipu.

The Taipu's combat power was even greater, nearly on par with the Mother of Void Beasts—only it lacked the void beast's uncanny ability to vanish into the void, appearing and disappearing like a ghost.

Later, when the Ancestral Court underwent its cataclysmic upheaval, the ancient giant beasts here went extinct, and Shujun's Taipu perished alongside him in battle in the Blood Rust Zone.

"With the Mother of Void Beasts, we can command void beasts to harass the territories of the other Heavenly Venerates. If they covet our lands, we strike where they must defend!"

Shen Mu laughed heartily. "Pi, you have done excellently!"

The Dragon Qilin was quite pleased with himself.

Shen Mu's mind began to race, and he calculated aloud, "We can also strike first. First Ancestor, Second Ancestor, I will take you to blockade the gates of every Heavenly Venerate's territory!"

The First Ancestor, the Human Sovereign, laughed. "Shen'er, you are grown now, and you are the Mu Heavenly Venerate. There is no need for us to accompany you on something like gate-blockading."

Shen Mu shook his head. "It is I who will take you to blockade the gates. Blockading a gate requires a powerhouse to hold the position. I will bring you along to blockade the mining districts of every Heavenly Venerate and see for ourselves the divine abilities of the Heaven Court's powerhouses."

The successive Human Sovereigns clenched their fists tightly, their expressions dark.

The Yishan Human Sovereign sneered. "If I could beat you, I would beat you so badly that even Sumuzhe would not recognize you!"

The other Human Sovereigns nodded one after another, and the First Ancestor nodded as well.

Shen Mu roared with laughter. "Then it is settled. I will first deal with matters here, then take you to pay them a visit."

He brought the Alchemist to the lush, densely vegetated area of Great Black Peak and probed, "Grandpa Alchemist, are the plants here spirit medicines?"

The Alchemist bent down and carefully examined a stalk of flowers and grass. His expression grew stranger and stranger. After a long while, he straightened up, took out a silver needle, and cautiously pricked a tender green branch.

With a sudden swish, the plant vanished into the ground and fled.

The Alchemist frowned and thought for a moment, then took out a spirit pill and carefully placed it before the small hole left by the fleeing divine herb. After a moment, the divine herb cautiously extended a leaf, tested the air, and finding no danger, grew back out. It curled its roots around the spirit pill and dragged it underground.

"The spirit medicines here are all rare species. I have never seen their like outside."

The Alchemist looked around and said in a low voice, "As for their medicinal power and efficacy, I still need to examine them in detail... Hm? How strange..."

He came to another spirit medicine. This one was so potent it had nearly condensed into something substantial—its medicinal power had transformed into the patterns of the Dao, forming visions of various runes.

The Alchemist was deeply shaken. He examined every segment of the medicinal power's structure in detail. After a long while, he exhaled a breath of turbid air and murmured, "My Dao... is about to be completed..."

He could not help but shed tears. Shen Mu, however, was wild with joy. He looked up at the sky and murmured, "My Dao... is also about to be completed..."

The Alchemist kicked him flying and snarled, "All you know is sponging off your elders day after day! If you put in more effort yourself, you would have succeeded long ago!"

Shen Mu rubbed his backside and said with perfect righteousness, "I am busy with more things every day—running back and forth, and I still have to comprehend all kinds of divine abilities and Dao arts. Where would I find time to cultivate the medical Dao? Of course I sponge off my elders!"

Seeing that he still dared to talk back, the Alchemist wished he could stuff a handful of poison down his throat.

Shen Mu hurriedly fled, and saw the Dragon Qilin and Yan'er settling the newcomers from Jingping. Once they had settled them in, Shen Mu summoned them and questioned them in detail about that elder with no fixed face and no fixed gender.

After a long while, Shen Mu's gaze flickered and he said, "He seems to know everything? He even knows about the Three Enclosures Supreme Consciousness Great Luo Unsurpassed Divine Consciousness that I imparted to you, and he knows about the birth of the Mother of Void Beasts... Before this, the Ancestral Court was sealed the entire time, only unsealed when we arrived—and even then not fully unsealed. So this mysterious elder can only be a divinity born from that enigmatic, unfathomable Chaos Ore Vein."

Yan'er said, "These days he has been carrying a water bucket, repairing the divine mountains that were shattered by the quakes. Those divine mountains are truly terrifying!"

"This is the Dao of material transposition."

Shen Mu said calmly, "The total matter and total energy of the universe are eternally unchanging. The process of the universe's destruction is the process of converting matter into energy; the process of the universe's birth is the process of converting energy into matter. Though those dreadful creatures come from a past universe that has already been destroyed, they too must abide by this principle. With this black wood, there is now a connecting channel between past and future."

He paced back and forth, musing, "They use void beasts to steal a portion of matter from our universe and fill it into the past universe. Then, with less matter here and more matter there, they can take the opportunity to transpose themselves over and come into our world."

"In other words, in the previous universe—right beside the roots of this great black wood—they held a reverse summoning, stealing matter from us. That is why you saw the void beasts' corpses piled like mountains quickly lose their blood, their flesh, and even their bones vanish within a few days."

Shen Mu looked up into the distance and clenched his fist heavily. "That ancient god handled it very poorly. He sealed off the mountains around this great black wood, but our universe is still missing a portion of matter, and that past universe still has a surplus. They will come again sooner or later!"

"Sealing Great Black Mountain only treats the symptom, not the root!"

"Well said!"

The moment Shen Mu's words fell, a voice came from behind, praising, "The Mu Heavenly Venerate speaks truly well. Worthy of the Mu Heavenly Venerate indeed."

Shen Mu turned toward the voice and saw a man dressed like a scholar, who had appeared behind them at some unknown time, holding a folding fan, elegant in bearing, handsome in features, though somewhat effeminate.

Shen Mu looked at the Dragon Qilin and Yan'er. The two hurriedly shook their heads and whispered, "Every time he comes, his gender is uncertain, his face is uncertain, his race is uncertain. We do not know if it is even him."

Shen Mu offered a salute and said, "May I ask how to address you, Brother Dao?"

The scholar tapped his palm with his folding fan and returned the salute. "Later generations call me Taiyi. The Mu Heavenly Venerate still carries the piece of eggshell from my birth!"